For my wedding, I knew I wanted big, beautiful floral centerpieces on each of the guest tables. Looking at prices for real flowers was overwhelming, so I decided to make them myself! Below is a step-by-step process to create these floral wedding centerpieces.
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Step 1 - Choose Flowers and Filler for Your Floral Wedding Centerpieces
I had previously done a bunch of research on what fake flowers are most realistic and chose sola wood flowers. Sola wood comes from the shola plant that grows quickly and abundantly in marshy areas. The plant can then be transformed into delicate flower shapes, either with the bark intact or bark removed. Once this occurs, sola wood flowers can be kept forever, making them an eco-friendly alternative to cut flowers. They look more realistic than silk flowers, and have a texture more similar to real flower petals. They are also less expensive than silk and real flowers, and you have the ability to make them any color you want.
I ordered my flowers and filler from Sola Wood Flowers. For this project, you will need about 50 flowers and about 4-5 types of filler per centerpiece. I had two larger (3.5 to 4 inch) focal flowers, and then an assortment of 1.5 to 3 inch for the remaining flowers. You can choose a couple flower styles or you can use multiple. For filler, I used mainly preserved eucalyptus greenery, but also some fake eucalyptus and baby's breath.
Once your flowers have arrived, you will want to open the packaging as soon as you can to help prevent moisture from accumulating. This will prevent any issues with molding.
Step 2 - Dye Your Flowers
Your next step once you receive your flowers is to dye them. One of the benefits of wood flowers is that you can really make them any color you want! You can use a flower dye or any acrylic paint to dye your flowers. I chose a few different shades of white to give some depth and make the flowers look even more realistic.
Additionally, during this step you will want to soften your flowers. Doing this will make the flowers more pliable, easier to work with, and less prone to cracking. Luckily, you can dye and soften your flowers all at once! You can use softener made for the wood flowers or you can use a vegetable glycerin. I got this jug on Amazon.
To make your dye/softener mixture, you will add an 8:1 mixture of water to softener/glycerin to a Tupperware container or bowl. I dyed my flowers in bulk and started with a 2 cup water:1/4 cup glycerin mixture, which I ended up refilling a few times. However, if you are only making your bouquet, you can probably do quite a bit less. Then, you can add your dye/paint. There is no set ratio for this, it will depend on what color you are trying to achieve. If you want a more muted color, you will use less. If you want a brighter color, use more. Once you add your paint, shake up your mixture and you are ready to dye!
The dyeing process is super easy (and a great place to get your soon-to-be spouse involved to make it go more quickly!). All you need to do is dunk your flower in the mixture to get it saturated, shake off the excess, and place it on parchment paper to dry. I found it helpful to place the flowers upside down so that any extra liquid wouldn't pool at the base of the flower.
Pro Tip: If you are dyeing any flowers that have rolled edges, they can be a bit more finnicky and like to unroll while drying. If you carefully tuck the rolled flower (right side up) into an egg carton, this can help the flower to retain its shape.
Your flowers will take about 24 hours or so to fully dry. Some flowers with many layers may take a bit longer. Wait for the flowers to completely dry before moving onto the next step or placing them into unsealed bags for storage. It can also be helpful to use the gel packets that came in the original packaging if you need to store the flowers for later, just in case! I'm not sure if this is necessary, but I figure better safe than sorry :)
Step 3 - Stem Your Flowers
Your next step in this project will be to add a stem to the flowers. You will need some floral stem wire, a hot glue gun (I have this one) with glue sticks, and a vase or container to store your flowers upright while the glue dries.
For this process, all you will have to do is add a small dab of hot glue onto the end of your floral wire and stick the floral wire into the base of your flower. Some flowers are super easy because they have a wide base, and others you have to be a bit more precise. Your goal is to stick the wire in far enough to create a secure connection, but not too far that you stick the wire through the front of the flower!
Step 4 - Prep Your Supplies
Once you have all of your flowers stemmed, you can get ready to create your centerpiece. I would recommend prepping your filler before getting started, because it will make the bouquet creation process go much more efficiently. To do this, you will want to break apart your filler into smaller individual pieces. Some filler strands will have a strong enough stem to be added directly to your centerpiece. Other pieces will be smaller and you may need to attach a smaller length of floral wire (see photo below). You can use leftover floral wire and use a wire cutters to cut it to the length you want. Then take a piece of floral tape to wrap around the wire and the filler stem.
Pro Tip: When using floral tape you need to pull the tape taut. Once there is a bit of tension on the tape it will become sticky! Otherwise, it will not stick to itself. It can be helpful to practice rolling the tape around a piece of floral wire before you get started to get the technique down.
Before you get started building your centerpiece you will also need to know which stand you are placing them on, if any. I really liked these flower stands from Amazon. I then placed clear plastic plates from the dollar store on top of them as my base. Don't worry- you won't be able to see the plates when you are done! You will also need to cut your floral foam to size (I cut each piece in half for this project).
Step 5 - Build Your Floral Wedding Centerpiece
Now it is time to build your centerpiece! You can be as creative as you want during this process. I chose to start with adding the flowers to the floral foam because I wanted there to be more flowers than filler. However, you could also start by adding filler if you wanted. I picked my two largest flowers and placed them approximately opposite each other on the foam block. Then, I worked with one flower type at a time and added them in a triangle pattern to my foam. Keep working until your foam block is mainly covered. You will want to make sure you add flowers into the block at all different angles- this will help to keep all the flowers secure. However, don't worry too much about packing the flowers tightly because next you will add some greenery to fill any gaps.
Pro Tip: Place your foam on your centerpiece stand while you are adding the flowers. This will help you to gauge how far out the flowers need to be so that they completely cover the stand.
Once you have added enough flowers to get the size and shape you want, you can add in your filler. Continue to follow that triangle technique to space out the different types of greenery. Play around with how far you want different greenery sticking out, depending on how orderly or wild you want the centerpiece to look.
You did it!
Congrats, you have made a gorgeous floral wedding centerpiece for your guest tables! After taking some time to admire your work, you can cross this off the list and start your next DIY project :) I can't wait to see what you have created!
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